Goldfish in a blender? Anyone familiar with some of the more provocative work of Marco Evaristti may think he’s downright cruel, or just out to get attention.

Thirteen years ago, the Danish-Chilean artist made headlines and ruffled feathers with “Helena & El Pescador.” The piece debuted at the Trapholt museum in Kolding, Denmark, and consisted of goldfish swimming in ten Moulinex blenders. Visitors were given a choice: hit the ON button and kill the fish, or leave the button alone as a way of granting pardon.

The director of the gallery, Peter Meyer, was sued for the work because he would not unplug the blenders after police demanded it. But the court decided not to convict Meyer.

The artist, his goldfish and blenders are back in Kolding, this time for a retrospective on his body of work in celebration of Evaristti’s 50th birthday. But “Helena” is now potentially less offensive: Instead of putting live fish in water and tempting the masses to kill, the goldfish are dead and preserved in transparent jelly, but still in a blender.

During an interview in his Copenhagen studio, Evaristti said he knows his work stirs emotion, but explained that “all this cruelty originates from me being a humanist.” Raised a Catholic who in his teenage years found out he was born to a Jewish mother, he has long incorporated philosophical themes in his work intended to force people to consider deeper meaning.

Taking a deeper look at the body of work on display in Kolding shows how he seeks to accomplish this. To protest to death penalty, Evaristti designed fashion for prisoners on death row. He once created a piece consisting of meatballs made from his own body fat.

His “Monotheistic Summit” piece is made of furniture wallpapered with pages from the Koran, the Torah and the Bible – in the middle stands a tree referring to Buddha’s patience. A trained architect who has designed many buildings (including offices in Denmark and a luxury hotel in Bangkok), his graduate work in college was titled “Brotherhood Chapel.”It was designed as a facility for many religions to gather at once.

But what he is most known for remains the goldfish in the blender. Evaristti said depending on how visitors reacted to

Trapholt Museum / Marco Evaristti

Helena & El Pescador” made waves because it was seen as encouraging the killing of goldfish. Evaristti says I will for always be identified with the goldfish piece and thats fine with me.”

thepiece revealed if they were voyeurs who liked to watch how others reacted, sadists who switched on a blender or moralists who troubled over the possibility of killing a fish.

“I will for always be identified with the goldfish piece and that’s fine with me, but what is important is to understand the essence of my work,” he said. He notes that most people refer to the piece as “Helena” and leave off the “& El Pescador” part of the title.

That probably reflects the fact that no one really talked much about the second part of that exhibit.

“El Pescador,” or “The Fisherman” refers to the part of the work is a nude self portrait of the artist and German profanities written on the photo.

So why didn’t he bring back the live gold fish and blenders, instead opting for dead ones in jelly? “It would not have made sense to recreate the original work with living fishes, because the whole discussion it triggered is also part of it,” Evaristti said. The new version reflects that debate about moral dilemna being preserved in time.

Live goldfish still play a role in his art. Some of the creatures ended up in a totally different place and are now swimming in an aquarium in which a Torah, a Bible and a Koran are slowly dissolving in the water. The title of this work: “Forgive Me Helena.”

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